UNICEF Iran Representative hands the ICDB award to Iranian producers

Tehran, 15 January 2012 –An Iranian production team from IRIB’s Radio Salamat received their award from UNICEF Iran Representative for winning the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting 2011 in Middle East and North Africa(MENA) region.

Iranian Producer, Ms. Mitra Ziaee accompanied with a number of child actors in the winner programme as well as senior officials from IRIB’s programme and planning department and the international affairs office met with UNICEF Iran Representative and received their award.

The winner programme was an episode of a radio series, called” My Child” submitted by Radio Salamat, featuring a number of children presenting the programme in the absence of the adult host. They talked in their simple and childlike language about the roles a society assigns to boys and girls, in line with the ICDB 2011 theme “girls are…boys are.”

UNICEF Representative in Iran, Mohamed El Munir Safieldin, congratulated the team on this success and said” We very much appreciate IRIB’s strategy in encouraging its producers to participate in the global media competitions with a focus on child participation. Indeed media has proven to be a close partner of UNICEF in promoting positive messages across the globe.”

Producer Ms. Ziaee said she owed this success to children and those who helped her develop a suitable script, ”I think the main reasons of winning this award are: a great script which was developed in consultation with experts of child psychology and considering the current social context of the world, combined with a different structure of the programme and of course the artistic performance of children “she added, ”however I believe the real stars and winners here are the children themselves.”

Meanwhile eight children, including five girls and three boys, aged 7 to 8 years old who had participated in this programme received gifts and certificates of appreciation from UNICEF Iran representative. Mr. Safieldin also admired the hard work of these children and their parents in this programme and expressed UNICEF’s support for initiatives which promote child participation portraying them as active citizens in media productions.

The MENA regional judging for ICDB took place in summer 2011 and entries were evaluated by teams of broadcasters, radio and television experts and communications specialists. The judges looked at content, execution and year-round youth participation.